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Disclaimer- I don't own SO3

Rest At Peterny

Nel took her time getting ready for the trip to Airyglyph. She had no doubt that it would be a long one. The news still hadn't fully sunk into her head yet. 'Albel The Wicked' dead? Impossible. At least it seems impossible for those who know swordsman from Airyglyph and seem him in action. Nel had never seen Albel accept defeat. The only time she witnessed a lost battle by him was when she fought him alongside Cliff and Fayt. That only strengthen Albel's resolve to become stronger.

She had always imagined Albel Nox to be invincible, and that belief remained even after she fought him in battle. She also recalled the fact that Albel fought along side Fayt against the creator himself. If the swordsman can survive a battle against the god of creation, then that would mean he's invincible. At least in Nel's book it does, you don't defeat a god if your just an average Elicoorian.

'Unless of course... they never fought a real god.' Nel thought to herself distractedly, pausing in her packing. Now that she thought about it, she realized that she doesn't know much about the journey Fayt had went on, along with everyone else. Only that it was a journey to save the universe from the creator. That's all she had ever heard about it. 'Then again, I didn't care enough to listen to what others spoke about the battle.'

She decided to change her thoughts to more important things, like planning for the trip ahead. Since they won't be able to travel for too long before the sun sets, she'll have to stop at Peterny and take a room at the inn. Something she was not looking forward to. Sharing a room with Fayt. She still hasn't figured out why he would deny her help.

'He must think I'm weak because I'm a woman.' Nel's brows furrow in anger at the thought. It wouldn't be the first time someone had thought that. Needless to say, they all learned first hand that Aquarian soldiers, who were mostly women, were not to be underestimated. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to just ask Fayt himself, why he didn't accept her help.

'And while I'm at it, I could ask what exactly happened on that journey. Something doesn't seem right, and I don't like getting false information.' A smirk slowly formed across her lips, the trip to Airyglyph might not be as bad as she had first thought. Not if she can pry some information from a certain off-worlder. 'Speaking of off-worlders, I should find out why he's on Elicoor to begin with. He has his own planet to live on.'

With her traveling pack now filled with the necessary items she needs for the trip to Airyglyph, she decided to go check and see if her traveling companion is ready as well. Nel had thought Fayt would be in his room packing, or speaking with the queen, or even wandering the halls, she had not expect him to be standing right outside her door with his pack in hand.

Any feelings of surprise were hidden from Nel's expression. The Crimson Blade crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a long look as if expecting him to say something. When he remained silent, Nel shock her head, "We'll head south towards Peterny where we'll rest for the night."

Fayt merely nodded his head and began walking away, leaving Nel to stare at his retreating form in question. Thinking nothing more of his strange behavior, Nel followed silently, having no intention to start a conversation with him.

------

"Oh, Lady Nel!" The receptionist in the Peterny Inn exclaimed cheerfully, "Will you be staying tonight?"

The Crimson Blade nodded her head, "Yes, and there will be someone else. Fayt Leingod." Nel exclaimed, while at the same time wondering where he had run off upon entering Peterny.

The receptionist began writing their names down on the sheet, "Alright, you're both checked into the third room."

"Actually, I'd prefer if we were put in two different rooms, if it's not a problem." Nel said.

The receptionist's brows furrowed in thought for a moment, "It wouldn't normally be a problem, it's just that we have many people checked in already, we're trying to keep groups together to conserve rooms in case of an emergency."

Nel gave a short nod, "Thank you anyway." With a quick farewell, Nel hurried off to the room her and Fayt are checked into.

--

The Inventor's Guild had long since become quiet after Luther's defeat. Many inventors had left, seeing how the main reason they were inventing was to create weapons and other various items to help defeat the Creator. Few remained, but it wasn't close to how much it seemed to flourish at the time of war.

This of course left very little work to do, leaving a certain Guild Master's secretary very bored. Her most popular, and enthusiastic group of inventors who had always seemed to have a new invention up their sleeves, had left a few months ago. With their departure, went her regular source of evaluation and being liaison.

Welch Vineyard, with her famous hand-on-stick and cheerful personality is without a doubt, incredibly bored. Spending most of her days sleeping on her desk, and checking on the few inventors that stuck around, she has next to nothing to do. Days come and go without excitement, or a new invention for that matter. On more than one occasion she had thought about up and leaving to search for a more creative, and most definitely, higher paying job. Yet she's stuck around, for reasons unknown to her or anyone else.

Welch let out a breath as she kicked her feet under the desk. Resting her head on one hand and spinning the hand-stick on her desk with her other, she only had her thoughts to entertain her, that and occasionally the Guild Master with his goofy personality. "Sigh... Sure has gotten quiet around here. Wonder if it would be better to just leave. Hmm... If I do go somewhere, I'll have to go someplace with a lot of hunks, there's certainly none here. I think I've been cooped up in this guild for far too long. I need to get out more, really I do."

The sound of a small bell chiming echoed in Welch's ears, it did little to lift her gloom mood. 'Probably Meryl with another bomb, or Mayu with some food she'll have me try and end up getting sick again. Or it'll be Eliza with a new useless rock, claiming it's the best thing that's come from Alchemy. Or maybe it'll be Izak with some sort of flashy laser gun. Than again it could be Gossam who'll test his latest love potion on me, and painfully find that it doesn't work. Dirty old man... Than there's always Osman with some sort of historical documents he wrote up on some ancient civilization. Something that'll put me straight to sleep.'

Welch already knew the most likely possibilities to come. She had to go through this for three months now. The very few inventors who still hang around are the ones with strange visions or are just plain lacking in the skill department to make something worthwhile.

On more than one occasion Welch has gotten food poisoning from something she had to try that Mayu cooked up. She's lost count of how many times she had to point out to Eliza that all she created was just a plain rock, and not the next award winning invention. She doesn't even want to think of how many times one of Meryl's bombs had blown up while she was studying them, leaving the guild in repair. She's not even going to get into Gossam, she had made sure last time that he wouldn't hit on her anymore.

So when you break it all down, Welch was stuck with two old men, a robot, and two girls. Any inventors who were even remotely cute in Welch's book had run off. Mackwell was smart and went back to Aquios, how she wished he stayed. At least she'd have something she could somewhat admire.

Welch move her gaze from the top of her oak desk to the item that was placed on her desk. Her brows furrowed in annoyance when she noticed it was just a compact communicator she had given to everyone who had joined the guild. 'And so another one finally decides to leave.' Welch thought to herself, "Farewell, and we hope to see you in the near future." Welch automatically said without bothering to look up to see who was leaving. Not like it mattered.

"Has it really gotten that bad around here?" Welch heard the inventor speak.

Welch had the urge to roll her eyes and say, 'You just noticed? What are you blind.' That is until the familiarity of the voice registered through her head. It was a males voice but it wasn't rough and old sounding like Osman and it wasn't lecherous like Gossam.

Welch finally sat straight up in her seat to see who had walked into the guild. Her brows raise in surprise when she sees the familiar young engineer from Greeton, Fayt Leingod, standing before her. A smile broke out on Welch's face, "Why hello! Long time no see. Uh... What are you doing here? Have a new product?"

Fayt shuck his head, "It's nothing really. I was just passing by and I remembered I still had the communicator. Seeing as how I don't need it anymore, I thought I'd give it back." Fayt scratched the back of his head as he glanced around the guild. In his opinion, it's in worse shape than the first time he stepped into it a year ago. Welch had gone silent again and seemed to be ignoring him now, or just doesn't have anything to say. "So uh... how've you been? Any good products out?"

"No there isn't." Fayt flinched at the harshness of her words. Welch shuck her head in dismay, "Everyone is leaving the guild. But they'll be back, I'm sure they will."

Welch may have sounded certain, but deep down, she doubted every word of it. Fayt evidently doubted it as much as she did, but chose not to voice his thoughts. "Well um... Anyway, there's the communicator. I guess I'll be seeing you around, maybe." With that said, Fayt turned and headed towards the door.

Welch's gaze went down to the communicator, she stared at it as she drummed her fingers on the desk in thought. "Wait!" Fayt turned around at Welch's call, and waited as she jumped from her seat and walk towards him. "Here, keep it." Welch said holding out the communicator.

Fayt shuck his head, "But I don't..."

"Consider it a gift for being this guild's first inventor to enlist. If you ever decide to invent something again, I'll be able to evaluate it again. Besides you can... oh never mind." Welch gave up.

Fayt raised an eyebrow, "I can what?"

Welch shuck her head, "Never mind I said."

Fayt crossed his arms over his chest and smiled, "I'm minding."

Welch let out an annoyed breath, "You can always just use it if you just want to talk to me, alright? Happy?"

"Very." Fayt joked before reaching out and grabbing the communicator, "Well when you put it that way, I guess I will keep it." Fayt turned and left, but not before waving a hand over his shoulder and saying, "See ya around."

------

After finding out which room Nel had gotten for the two of them, Fayt decided to turn in for the day. Not sure whether Nel would already be asleep or not, he made sure to be as quiet as possible. He managed to crack open the door enough to slip in without making much noise, but then he ran into a problem. The lights were out and he has no idea where he'll be going. He placed his pack on the ground and reached his hands out in front of him to make sure he won't crash into anything. With short careful steps, Fayt made his way towards, what he hopes, is an empty bed.

"You know, it's easier to see with the lights on." Fayt nearly jumped at the sound of Nel's voice.

A second later, the room was lighted with a flip of a switch, leaving everything fuzzy to Fayt since his eyes aren't used to the light. He turned around to where he had heard Nel's voice and found her leaning against the wall next to the switch, with her arms crossed over her chest, still in her clothes from earlier today. Now that Fayt thought about it, he's never seen her in anything else.

Nel bowed her head until only the brim of her nose and her eyes ere visible. "So... Where'd you go?" She asked, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

Fayt walked back towards his pack and picked it up before heading towards an empty bed, "Nowhere in particular, just walked around."

"Seems like a strange time for one to go walk around the town. Who knows what's walking around out there." Nel said, though here voice didn't show any concern she might have felt.

Fayt took a seat on the bed nearest to the wall and sat on the edge so he could take his boots off, "If anything tries to attack, I'll be more than capable of taking care of myself. I'm not a child."

Nel shrugged her shoulders slowly as she shook her head, "Of course. After all, you did defeat the god of creation." Fayt remained silent although his expression changed to a solemn one. Curious as to why he seemed to be uncomfortable about the subject, Nel decided to press further, "Tell me... how did that battle go? I can only imagine how one would fight a god."

"Nel, it's late. I'm tired. And it's all in the past. That doesn't matter anymore." Fayt explained exhausted, both mentally and physically.

Nel gave one nod, showing her understanding, "Very well. If you won't answer that question, will you answer another?"

Fayt let out a tired breath, already wishing Nel had been asleep when he arrived. He'd rather trip around the floor in the darkness than play a million questions, "Alright, I'll answer one." He agreed.

"Why have you returned to Elicoor?" Nel asked, "From what I know, you have your own planet. You were searching for your father the last I saw you. Why aren't you with him?"

Fayt smiled sadly and leaned back on his bed, "Well... I could tell you something you wouldn't understand like I'm actually here because Elicoor II is growing in technology and economy so the Galactic Federation wanted a representative to watch over the planet. I could tell you that and be done with the question, but that would be a lie." Nel was already growing impatient with him. She just wants a simple answered, not a whole list of things that aren't true.

"My father... was killed. The Vendeeni killed him." Fayt explained, he held his hand out to stop Nel from saying anything, "No I'm fine. Well, Luth-... uh the god that threatened our universe had actually destroyed Earth, the planet I'm from. It's much like Elicoor actually."

"Surely you have more family somewhere." Nel put in.

Fayt scratched the back of his head uncomfortably, "Yeah... I thought I did... Me and Sophia were searching for my mom and her family. We thought we found both in a report on people who escaped the Vendeeni attack on Hyda. We went to look for ourselves. We found Sophia's family. But my mother... didn't make it."

"My apologies."

"Don't worry about it. You didn't know." Fayt said, "I guess the reason I came to Elicoor was in search of a place where I could live peacefully. Being the way I am, many other organizations may try to find a way to capture me to use my power."

Nel understood. She saw the destructive power firsthand that is buried deep under Fayt's subconscious. She saw the large celestial ship, a Vendeeni ship, be obliterated by Fayt's power. It's no surprise that other people in the galaxy would try to find a way to control that power, even against the host's will.

"Well I've answered your question, so I'm going to sleep." Fayt announced before pulling his shirt off and getting under his covers.

Nel flipped the light back off and made her way towards her bed. Being from Elicoor and having the power to use runology, Nel has the unique ability to sense the runological force in other creatures. Though not as strongly as the Queen, she considered herself quite gifted in the department. It always gave her a heads up before something attacked her. If she concentrated enough, she's able to see the aura of runological force surrounding a person.

She had always found that Fayt's was rather alluring, with the soft white glow about him. She has never met another person with the same aura surrounding him. She can recall everyone's who she had met, Cliff and Mirage had a faint fiery orange aura, Roger had a forest green, Adray a faint red, Maria had a dark purple, and Albel's was black, which seemed to suite the swordsman well. She didn't know Sophia long enough to see hers, having only seen and spoken to the girl once when Fayt had visited her.

When night came, she could see the symbolical force even more, as it seemed to glow more when the person is asleep. Nel wondered if it's due to the fact that the person is relaxed, and at peace, therefore the runological force isn't being restrained. Of course, Nel could never know exactly why, but she had her theories. The ability to see ones runological force is also another way to tell if someone is asleep or not.

For instance, Fayt soft white aura only seemed to be a flicker of light, which meant that he's very much awake, and not at all relaxed. She could only imagine what is troubling the young man. 'Must be because he had to recall what happened to his parents.' Nel let out a long breath, letting it drag out, 'Such are the effects of war. It'll hurt less eventually.'

Nel was right in assuming that Fayt isn't at all relaxed, and that he's troubled. What she wasn't right about was what's troubling him. It's not the fact he had to recall his parents thoughts that have him uneasy. The only thing troubling him is his own thoughts. Ever since they defeated Luther, and saved the universe, his mind didn't seem to let up on his thoughts.

'We're just programs, a game for the 4D beings to watch.' Fayt began thinking, 'How do we know what was real? What if everything that happened was just part of a game. How do we know that Luther really is the owner, and that by stopping him would free us completely? How do we know that we really passed into the 4D universe. Or that there really is a 4D universe... What if, the Eternal Sphere, Luther, Blair, and 4D space is all just part of the game. Puppets for the real master to control. Maria said that our conscience is the only real thing about us, and if our conscious tells us something is real, than that is reality for us. How do I know that my conscious isn't just making everything around me up? What if the universe is really gone and I just refuse to let go?'

The longer Fayt thinks about it, the more ways he finds to doubt his existence and the stranger his questions become. He had come to Elicoor in hopes that the peaceful surroundings would set his troubled mind at ease. It wasn't so however. He can only wish that he could forget everything he's seen and learned.